Copenhagen… and Last Day

So last day… sad ☹ But fabulous day… great ☺

Yesterday we got in around noon, took the subway into downtown Copenhagen and explored to find our hotel... after a few wrong turns we found this international archery contest right outside our hotel. So after a bit of a detour around the competition we found out glorious hotel! Right beside the canal… not knowing what to expect being the second cheapest hotel (of course with a #1 rating on TripAdvisor we figured we couldn’t go wrong) our room is AMAZING! We are on the second floor and we have a BALCONY that leads out to the canal. It appears that we have the ONLY room with a balcony too! We dropped our stuff in the hotel and headed out for a lunch of open face sandwiches by the canal while we watched the Denmark Co-ed team archers take the gold medal. It was pretty cook to watch.

Holy FREAKIN’ cow everything is expensive here! Our lunch… mind you in a super pricey area was $40 (for 2 open faced sandwiches and 2 small beers)… eep! Then it was off to do some shopping. 99% of the shops are closed here on Sunday so if we were going to shop it was going to have to be today… but between the prices (apparently 25% tax!) and the money conversion it’s just plain insane to buy anything! Plus they are pretty avant garde in the fashion… it’s all 80’s skinny jeans and sweaters and tight (ick-o-rama! and no thank you!) We tried Tivoli Gardens which from the description seemed like a little Wonderland but it was closed for the season ☹

We then headed to Christiania which is a commune that was started about 30 years ago where these people just started squatting and then never left. For some reason (I’m not really sure why… I was expecting “Upper Canada Village” and boy was I wrong… it was more punk rock means “do what ever the hell you want”. It was like a total rock concert… although that could have been because it was Saturday night. We then grabbed some beer at the local 7-11 and headed back to the hotel for an aperitif before dinner. We then decided to go for something low key and perhaps take it back to the hotel. Instead we spotted the quant reasonably priced place and decided to eat there. I had tuna and Anna had curry fish and chips. It was really good but it had nothing on the dinner Anna and I had in Aarhus!

Next morning we decided to go on the river boat cruise (only one small part where I felt a bit queasy) it was very cool to see everything from the river (including the 1-2 million USD condos that back on the river which were truly beautiful… except of course that they back onto Christiania! Crazy!)

We decided to head back to the little mermaid and get some picture from land. Along the way we stopped at the Castle where the Royal Family live. They weren’t home, but they did have an interesting changing of the guard (but they have nothing on ours!)

We then headed to the National Art museum, which was FREE! So few free things in this city!!! We spent 2 hours exploring and loving their art collection. There were some particularly interesting modern art and religious art pieces that I liked.

We then headed back and decided to have a Thai dinner… something different and the prices were super reasonable (yeah!)

So tomorrow I’m off for home ☹ Sad!

Last Day in Rome : (

Time for me to go... not for a loss of an eventful morning. I walked all all over starting with Trevi Fountain (which was not on yet?!) so I hung around and watched the guy turn it on... how cool is that job... I turn on the Trevi Fountain every morning. I love doing things before 10am... there are not very many people just a few early birds. It made for some great pictures of the fountain.

Keeping with the fountain theme I headed to Piazza Navona and stopped at the Pantheon on the way. The Pantheon has been a church since 604 AD... that means it is celebrating its 1400 birthday this year... and that is just being a church it was something else before the Pope at the time made it a church. It is beautiful inside... the large cement dome is breathtaking!

I lucked out and got to Piazza Navona before there were tones of people and all the tourist crap sellers had set up. It was super peaceful and gave me some time to write some postcards. I loved the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi... I think it is my favourite fountain. I then doubled back to the Spanish Steps... by that time there were TONS of tourists so it was cool but packed with people. I loved the shops along the way. It was like I died and went to haute couture heaven. I swear if I ever win more money than I know what to do with I am coming here to shop like crazy!

I orignally thought it would be lots of walking to walk this all but as it turns out everthing is super close together so I decided to go back to the Pantheon so see about some gelato and then continue onton Campo di Fiori which is like an open market. There were a few glimpses of real Italian market-ness however the tourist crap stalls have taken some parts over. My favourite was a t-shirt shop where out of the corner of my eye I spot a Bart Simpson dressed in yellow, red, and green smoking a joint with the the words "Jamaica" undernear... yeah, I came all the way to Rome and I got you a shirt form Jamaica?!

Loved Rome... I threw some coins into the Trevi Fountain in the hopes that I will be back soon.

FULL day in Rome

I've realized that I'm so not going to see all Rome has to offer so I have to make some priorites today... but that's not to say I didn't try to do everything!

I was up at the crack of dawn... okay... really it was more like 6:45! But I was up for the terrace breakfast which was loaded with options and just what I needed to start the day. Oh did I mention the breakfast came with a fresh espresso?! It was so tasty (Jody, I even had foam!)

I was then off to the Coloseum and I took TONS of photos! It's a very neat and beautiful place. I followed that up with the Roman Forum (LOTS more photos). It was really neat to see the ruins, things that used to be there. My guide books was very good at tell me where things where and events that happened in each location )thank gosh, because there were no signs?). Then it was of to Vittoriano which was quite beautiful close up. I got some great pictures from way up. This is also where they have a tomb of the unknown solider. Yeah... things are done a bit different over here!

I then stopped for lunch at a little cafe near my hotel. So yummy and I have to mention that mostly when you say you want water they bring you water with bubbles... it's in all the vending machines. It's awesome! This is how it should be!

I had to swing back to my hotel to pick up some sunscreen then it was off to Vatican city! Wow! Beautiful and talk about rich! The museums (had no line!!!) was well laid out and the art (modern art excluded) was beautiful. The scuptures and the Sistine Chapel were breathtaking... I could have stayed there forever!

I then got in the looooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggggg line for St. Peter's Basilica. It was well worth the wait! The sculptures, tiles, art was amazing.... but by then I was getting tired and it was time to head home.

I grabbed some gelato and started the walk back to the metro station. I was a bit bummed that I haven't gotten any souvenirs (I seriously hate the tourist crap the sell on the streets)... that is until I say the perfect souvenir!!! That's right... a SHOE STORE! Oh yeah... I was all over that! I'm the proud owner of some super sexy Italian shoes!

Running out of Internet time! Got to go! Arrivederci!

Birthday Spaetzle and First Day in Rome

I woke up my birthday morning to a party! Anna had decorated the room in balloons and a Danish which I think means congratulations! It was a great start to a great day! I opened a present from Anna (beautiful earrings and some seriously yummy snacks!) The card was even in Danish! My first Danish card!

Anna had to head out to hear some talks so I took my time getting ready and then I stuck out on my own. I went to see a small Cold War Museum (name to follow... I don't have my Berlin tour book here) where you can touch things and play with things from that time period. It was very intersting, what I found most interesting was the map the East Germany where it showed 1/4 of Germany with a giant white hole in the middle of Berlin they just took west Berlin right off the map!

Next I headed out to see the East Side Gallery which was beautifully decorated but didn't seem like the best part of town so I didn't walk the whole thing. It was then time to head back to meet Anna at 5:15 back at the hotel (did I mention the public transportation is really SLOW and the city is really big?!)

We got ready for dinner and then headed out. First stop was the Erotik Museum, apparently very "Berlin". Some interesting stuff...

Then we began looking for the authentic German restaurant from Anna's guide book. After exporing and walking without any luck we decided the heck with it, we are found a place. Wouldn't you know it... it was the place from the book! Second time that happened to use (see sushi place in Japan!). I ordered a german type cola that has orange flavouring (too odd not to try... and it was amazing!), a small beer and cheese spaetzle (that came with salad). It was AMAZING!!! Best spaetzle ever!

Before heading back to the hotel we stopped at the Berlin Gate (pls forgive me for not having the proper name!) again and it was stunning at night (and without thousands of runners and marathon spectators. We got some crazy awesome pics!

Back at the hotel, Anna had gotten some cake so I blew out my paper candles and we had cake back in the hotel room! A totally rockin' day!!!

Next morning I was up at 4pm to be at the airport for 5:30! I arrived in Rome at 9:00 and took the bus shuttle into town and then the subway to the station near my hotel. Then it was an easy couple of streets to my hotel... HA! Yeah, I got totally totally LOST! None of the streets were on my map! Ack! Finally I turned a corner and there was a giant monument (I later dicovered it was Il Vittoriano) but the only thing I was thinking was this HAS to be on the map! From there I realized I've overshot my hotel by about 5 blocks so I headed back to restart finally finding the hotel.

I dropped my stuff and headed to the Villa Borghese. I had a 3:00 museum reservation so it as quite the rush to find it and get there. the Villa was beautiful but the museum was amazing! Beautiful sculptures and painting! Well worth the trip up!

When that was done I was exhausted so I headed home grabbed some mushroom pizza next door and settled to sleep.

Now I'm off for day 2 in Rome!

Key Learning in the last hours of being 30

Last day of being 30 has brought some important learning that I think I should have already learned but it's always interesting to re-learn sometimes!

#5 - Given a reasonable budget and nothing in mind you will find nothing while shopping!
Anna and I set off the day with shopping in Berlin on our mind... H&M galore seriously like one every block and other fabulous (yet reasonable) store continued to leave us empty handed :( We had a good time and got some great pics of a bombed out church that they have left just as it was (well with some added support).

#4 - Cury-wurst is freakin' amazing
After shopping I headed back to the hotel and the sun shining into the room in the morning gave me a false indication that it would be sunny all day and I was freezing in my tank top. After a quick change it was off to the Jewish museum. The museum was profound (as has all of their monuments and memorials) the architect who designed the museum must have thought a lot about how everything would feel. It was also interesting to see the last 2000 years of Jewish history not just the last 100.

After the Jewish museum it was a short trip to Curry 36 a famous, fight your way in, curry-wurst street-meat place. All the Germans ahead of me (good sign) had complicated orders so when I got to the front all I said was "Curry-wurst" and he did his thing chopping up a sausage, dusting it in curry, drowning it in ketchup, and then another dusting of curry. Absolutely fabulous!!! So tasty! and so cheap! 1.50 euros for the whole thing!

#3 - 5 Euros is ridiculous cost for having food brought up the elevator to your room
I had a low key night nothing too exciting but when Anna came back from the science conference it was exciting times... both of us had not had dinner so we decided to have room service but given the complicated instructions we decided to go down and figure it out. After talking with the waitress I ordered spaghetti and Anna ordered pizza. The waitress gave us two options we take it up to our room ourselves for free or we would pay 5 euros to have it delivered. 5 EUROS! that's like $7.50 on a good day! We decided that's crazy and we are going to bring it up ourselves.

#2 - 5 Euros is a deal to have food brought to your room.
We should have known better... out comes the most precariously balanced meals for us to manage our way to the room. Of course some of Anna's colleagues are hanging out in the lobby so it was don't let it crash, let alone, crash in the lobby. All of a sudden $7.50 seemed reasonable to have someone else risk the food up to our room. Although who knows how if they did it on purpose to make us choose the 5 euro option next time!

#1 - Spaghetti (although fabulous) may not be the best thing to eat 5 minutes before midnight. This one I've most definitively learned before but I was craving pasta and hungry it was so hard to say no to the spaghetti! It was well worth it that spaghetti was my last meal as a 30 year old!

BRING ON 31!

Marathon, Opera, and Exploring Berlin

Day started out with a great sleep in... Anna's friend from Hawaii called so we decided to take on Berlin as a threesome!

First up was Starbucks... nothing like going all the way to Europe to get coffee at Berlin but it was just too good to resist! (Oh.. Jody, they don't have chocolate caramel pretzels but they did have chocolate caramel shortbread... not a good as the pretzel but totally to die for!) Starbucks was right next to the marathon route and due to our sleep in the first finishers were going by... it was great to see them and cheer them on (Berlin is certainly now on my list if we ever decide to do a marathon!)

After quick viewing of the marathon we headed to the Reichstag it was beautiful the the views from the roof and the very large glass dome was beautiful (and very informative). Right next to the Reichstag was the Brandenburger Tor, very impressive gate that all the runners get to run through on their way to the finish line. The race folks had set up this ingenious crossing so that we could cross to the other side of the race and get some glorious views of the Gate.

On the other side we make a visit to the Holocaust Memorial. Berlin has some of the most interesting and thoughtful memorials I've ever visited. The Holocaust Memorial is a field of very large cement bricks. From the outside you see nothing but bricks but as you enter you realize it goes deep and the bricks get tall... the Memorial hides the people like as you ever you completely disappear from view. It was very moving and symbolic. We also visited the Bebelplatz square where they have monument to the May 10, 1933 Nazi book burning that happened in this square. In the middle of the square there is a hole where you can look down into a white room full with empty shelves. Amazingly across the street is now a University.

Then it was off the the opera. La Traviata is a very different opera than Rigeletto, it was a very simple opera not much of a set just beautiful music and great story. It was really moving (especially the solo at the beginning of the third act).

Tomorrow Anna is off to the conference and off to see a few things solo.

Trains and Planes on the way to Berlin

After a glorious lunch we headed to Anna’s office so she could get one last practice of her talk. After that it was Friday beer... the grad students get together on Fridays for beer so it was fun to meet all her colleagues and those just starting their research. Very tasty Danish beer too!

For our last night in Århus :) we decided to hang in... we went shopping so we got some bread, cheese (Danish blue cheese... yum!) and some tortellini. Cooked it all up and watched four hours of top chef it was so relaxing and awesome! We also continued the tradition (started the night before at the fancy Danish restaurant) of having an aperitif before dinner. Hopefully we can keep that going for the whole trip!

Next morning we were up at 6am to head to the train station for a 3.5 hour train trip to the Copenhagen airport to catch our flight to Berlin... however the Danes keep asking us why we didn’t take train all the way to Berlin and the only reason we could think of was that we didn’t even think of it... in Canada it’s just logical to take a plane to your destination... yeah we looked it up and it’s appeared to be slightly faster (and we didn’t even want to know the price difference!) Oh well, what’s done is done and I honestly don’t think I could have handled the whole way, I felt like I was still rocking on the train hours later... not a good time.

We made it to Berlin safe and sound ☺ We didn’t see much of the city, just headed to the hotel (three trains to arrive here). The hotel is awesome, great beds & deep tub! We ventured out to get some food for dinner and breakfast because we didn’t feel like going to too far.

We did get an invite at the grocery store by three Irish boys... it was super nice until they follow it up by “we only invited you because you speak English and we are lacking girls” which Anna cleverly followed up with “so we should be flattered then...” we politely declined, bought our groceries, and then headed back to the hotel. One of my favourite purchases was puffy ketchup flavoured teddy bears… very tasty ☺ The paprika flavoured chips were tasty too.

Tomorrow Anna and I will be venturing out into Berlin downtown!

First Day in Århus

So I arrived after an epic journey... I suspect it's like going up to northern Canada... A six hour flight to London (sort of like Ottawa to Vancouver) the fly to Copenhagen (I guess like going Vancouver to Whitehorse) and then get in the ridiculously small plane where you are sure you are going to fall out of the sky mid-flight to this tiny obscure airport. The bus to Århus was even waiting for me! Totally awesome!

So quick recap... flight into London was uneventful... I didn't really sleep which was too bad :( I had breakfast in the Heathrow airport. An interesting lunch of duck and hoisin sauce wrap with prawn cocktail crisps and cloudy lemonade. Interesting breakfast but considering I was eating at what felt like 2am it was all good. Very much like Heathrow they wait until the very last minute to update the board with the gate and as would luck would have it I stationed myself next to girls who were very worried that their flight still had not posted the gate... from process of elimination I realized we were on the same flight so I just waited for them to (literally) jump and run to the gate before I gathered my stuff and walked over (what do you really think it would leave without you?!)

Copenhagen (or the airport) was nice and I had another 2 hours to kill so I decided to have lunch. Not wanting to indulge in another sandwich, I decided on an authentic Danish hot dog "all dressed" which has some interesting stuff on it... which I think amounted to dijon mustard, ketchup, tartar sauce, raw onions, crispy onions (although it could have been bacon it was difficult to tell), and pickles. It was good but different.

Seeing Anna has been awesome! Yesterday we caught up and went for an amazing dinner! Food is so good and the people are so nice! Today we have done some hanging around and window shopping (neither of us wanted to do real shopping).

Okay... so I must say... Århus is such a beautiful city but the men... (seriously!!) they are most beautiful I've EVER seen!!! It's like copies of Alexander Skarsgård around everywhere... some are taller, some are shorter but OMG! It's crazy time here... maybe it's something in the water?

Leaving in 5 hours!

Crazy whirl wind! Between work and the trip it's amazing I'm still standing! I leave in 5 hours but seriously it will be like 29 hours before I reach my destination.

Wish me luck! Next Post from Denmark (unless I get board at the Heathrow airport ;)